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Estrada destroys TFC with assists from Fernandez, Winter

So last April, Toronto came to RBP and played a very aggressive game. Aron Winter likes to play a very possession-based style, and as such they play with their defensive line a long way from their own goal (often referred to as a ‘high line’) with the aim of squeezing the space for the opponent to play in, thus resulting in more giveaways for the Reds’ midfield to take advantage of. This strategy only works, however, if you can get pressure on the ball. In that game last April, Toronto failed miserably to do that and the end result was a 3-0 thrashing that could easily have been double that.

Since then, TFC have improved considerably, and I kinda expected to see a different strategy this time around, or at least, a more tenacious effort to make it work. The reality, however, was that they came out with exactly the same high line, and exactly the same total failure to get pressure on the ball. David Estrada must have been licking his lips when he saw all that wide open space behind their back four, and boy, did he make it count.

Aron Winter has assembled a good team, but his coaching inexperience was there for all to see last night. The only other team to come to RBP and play such a high line last year was Colorado, and oh yeah, we hung four on them too. On offense, TFC are clearly 100 times better than they were this time last year, but their season will live and die on whether they can get that defense to work. When you see Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, of all people, racing through your midfield to thread a perfect through ball for Mauro Rosales, as happened one time in the second half, you know that something has gone horribly wrong.

I also kinda wonder if Sigi laid a little trap for Winter during the week, implying that he was going to be dropping/resting a bunch of players for this game. You kinda wondered if Toronto heard that and thought that we were more drained by the game in Mexico than we actually were. Koevermans started on the bench, and De Guzman was on there too so presumably he was just being rested. The reality, of course, was that other than Gonzalez and Parke, everyone was there and we definitely didn’t play like a team that was tired.

Anyway, enough about TFC, more about the Sounders. Pretty solid performance, all round. David Estrada was fantastic. With his speed and fitness, the way TFC played was just made for him. He made run after run after run behind their back four, and our midfield did a terrific job of finding him. He had a couple of other good chances too, beyond the three that he put away. All credit to him, he worked his socks off and now he’s [gasp] MLS leading scorer. Who would have thunked that?

I don’t think people should get too revved up on the Estrada bandwagon, though. Very few teams will give him the kind of space behind the back four that he got last night, so it’s unrealistic to expect a barrage of goals from him this season, even if he does stay in the team ahead of Eddie Johnson. That said, though, he is a pretty similar type of player to Mike Fucito, and he already has more MLS goals than Fucito scored the whole of last season, so you can’t knock it. His fitness is tremendous, his work rate is top class and pace is always a valuable asset. He’s a good foil for Montero, too, in the same way that Johnson should be. Certainly he’s improved beyond all recognition from where he was a year ago. All power to him.

Beyond that, the Sounders were a little patchy in spells in this game, but played some cracking stuff in bursts. Certainly we were more than worthy of the victory. And, quite honestly, after what happened in Mexico this week, getting the victory really was the most important thing. Fernandez’ two assists were fantastic, and Rosales and Alonso were both very lively too. Defensively, we did pretty well for the most part. We did give Ryan Johnson too much space on their goal, but my goodness, what a goal that was. You won’t see many better than that.

All in all, a pretty great night. Fun game to watch, good football, good goals. Nice tifo by the ECS, as usual, and I also liked the ‘footy is simple; one home, one away’ banner. This, as you probably guessed, is a reference to the new, unbalanced schedule in MLS, and is a sentiment that I have to say, I totally agree with. An unbalanced schedule effectively makes the supporters shield pretty worthless, given that it’s not a level playing field for all the teams, and that to me is an absolute tragedy. It effectively means that the only aim each team has for the regular season is to finish in the top five in their conference in order to qualify for the playoffs, which is hardly a target to get excited about. This has been done under the guise of ‘raising the level of play’, but really it’s highly debatable whether this is actually true or not. Really it’s about saving travel costs, which is a pretty poor excuse for demeaning the entire regular season, in my opinion.

To finish off, I just wanted to make a shout out to La Barra Fuerza Verde, the new ECS affiliate aimed at Latin American Sounders fans (but open to anyone, even Brits :-)). They are easily the nicest group of people I have ever met in nearly 30 years of following soccer. They are hosting a pachanga at Merchants Cafe on Yesler up until the march before every home game, and kids are welcome too. Check them out at http://barrafuerzaverde.org/.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

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Simon MoyseBorn in London, Simon joined the Emerald City Supporters after he moved to Snohomish in 2004. He watches games with his son Elliott.